Mastercard Foundation is a global foundation based across four hubs in Kigali, Rwanda, Nairobi, Kenya, Accra, Ghana and Toronto, Canada. Our programs promote financial inclusion and advance education and learning in Africa, primarily for young people, and in Canada for Indigenous youth. The Foundation was established in 2006 through the generosity of Mastercard when it became a public company. From inception, the Foundation was designed to be a separate entity and independent from Mastercard. Our policies, operations, and funding decisions are made by our President and Board of Directors.

The Foundation believes that youth employment is key to unlocking prosperity, both for youth and their societies. Enabling young women and men from disadvantaged communities to secure dignified and fulfilling work will ensure inclusive development and economic growth in Africa.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Program Finance Head of Governance, Compliance & Business Controls

Location: Nigeria
Employment Type: Full-time

The Opportunity

• Reporting to the Head of Finance & Accounting, Africa.
• The role will be responsible for ensuring the Financial & Operational Processes across the foundation related to Programs and, Program Finance, including policies & Procedures are designed, implemented and operating effectively to safeguard Foundation resources from Financial & operational risks as well as partner the programs and program finance teams to strengthening the controls & compliance environment within the end to end programming processes within the foundation (Financial & Operational Risks) in collaboration with the Head Business Controls & ERP and the Strategy and Planning Programs Team.

Ways You Can Contribute

• SME (Subject Matter Expert). Provide first line advice and support to the program finance teams in terms of the Due. Diligence/Contracting/Deliver process as well as other program Finance processes and ensure that identified issues are escalated to second line support as required (2nd line would be Legal) or that proposed solutions are sufficient to mitigate the risks.
• Masterdata & Financial data integrity of the grant management system.
• SME for the grant management system on financial matters and usage of the system.
• Partner with IT to ensure that process improvements impacting the grants management system are tracked & implemented and controls are not compromised.
• Design, lead & implement a process of Controls Self-assessment of program finance processes to ensure controls are operating as designed across the portfolio.
• Lead the implementation of new process improvement and processes improvements/enhancement within the program Finance function in partnership with the Strategy & planning as well as the controller function.
• Ensure that all control gaps and incidences identified within the program finance processes are remediated in a timely & complete manner in coordination with the assurance function and in partnership with the programs teams (Incident Management).
• Continuous control assessment of our design to deliver programming processes to ensure we have adequate/sufficient internal controls (Financial) to mitigate against key risk (Emphasis on financial risks & partners with other functions for operational risks) and together with the Strategic Ops team and Enterprise Risk Management Team update processes, polices, tools etc to support a Strengthening of the controls environment.
• Ensure the automated and manual controls processes in relevant grants management system are designed and operating effectively (e.g. Fluxx) are in place related to Program Finance, DD, etc.
• Oversee and continuously improvement of the Financial routines in the Design to deliver phase of programming process.
• Partner the RD and the Programs team in the Peer Review Process, to drive continuous improvement and driving for embedding of learnings.
• Working together with other business processes champions to ensure processes, polices and tools developed are aligned and efficient in support of the programming process without any dilution of the controls environment.
• Ensure that learnings from escalations and matters arising are embedded into process improvement for the program finance team to strengthen the control environment and deliver an effective & efficient process that enables programming.
• Lead the implementation and embedding of the Programs compliance framework with program Finance teams as developed by legal & compliance in partnership with the key stakeholders whilst ensuring synergies with program finance processes and principle of strengthening Financial and operational controls.
• Continuous self-assessment of programs to check for compliance & institute corrective actions as appropriate together with the program + Legal and compliance teams.
• Together with L&D & Other functions support in the development and dissemination of information, learnings and development of training materials with the objective of disseminating knowledge on program finance processes to other functions and support the capacity building of program Finance team to drive the culture of continuous improvement within the team.
• Support the continuous training of the program finance teams on the processes and governance to ensure we minimize significant control deficiencies.
• Develop and implement and run the finance onboarding program in partnership with the controller function and the programs and L&D function to ensure teams are enabled to deliver their work.
• Develop relationship of a trusted partner with mainly internal stakeholders (Business Controller, Global Controller, Legal & Compliance and Strategy & Planning & Assurance/ERM Etc) and external stakeholders (Program Partners).
• Partner & support the Controller function in the development of the ERP system.
• Other Projects and work as maybe required from time to time.

Who You Are

• A University Degree, Qualified Accountant or another relevant qualification is required.
• Minimum of 13 year work experience in Finance, Finance Operations, Shared Services or related fields.
• Experience in Transformation programs and Projects at a regional/global scale an added advantage.
• Experience in designing, implementing & managing Operational Internal Control Systems, processes and Policies.
• Proven ability in managing Financial Processes & Accounting Operations Management, experience in programming, project management an added advantage.
• Demonstrated technical expertise in identifying, designing & Mitigate Operational, Financial and Business Risks.
• Sigma six Black belt added advantage.
• Ability to manage multiple projects and prioritize and execute.
• Innovative and able to formulate new or creative approaches to problems.
• Ability to effectively interact and influence across a matrix business organizational structure and work closely in liaison with finance and business teams.
• Flexible, open to change and able to execute a range of job duties and changing priorities.
• Tenacious, Independent and works with Initiative.
• Problem solving: Effectiveness in identifying problems, seeking pertinent data, recognizing important information and identifying possible causes of problems and solutions to challenges.
• Flexible, adaptable, and able to execute a range of job duties and changing priorities.
• Possess excellent verbal, written, and presentation skills with the ability to articulate information to a variety of constituents across cultures.
• Possess professional maturity, sensitivity with different cultures, and impeccable integrity that exemplify the Foundation’s values.
• Demonstrate a commitment to Mastercard Foundation’s values and vision.

Application Closing Date
3rd April, 2022.